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Plot design and harvesting Twelve sampling plots (16 m × 16 m) in three P. deltoides plantations were established based on systematic random design. To minimize edge effects, surrounding rows were not considered during sampling. The age of the stands was 18-20 years old. In each sampling plot, the DBH (diameter at breast height 1.3 m above the ground) of the individual trees was measured with a caliper in two perpendicular directions and the mean DBH determined. Tree height was measured by Haglöf-Vertex IV hypsometer. Based on the DBH and height measurements, 10 DBH classes from 15 to 42 cm (3 cm intervals) were established. The value of each DBH class represented the central value (i.e., class 15 included all DBH from 12.5 to 17.5 cm). In each DBH class, one representative tree was selected and harvested for a total of 10 P. deltoides trees. Measurements of bark percentagesThe stems of harvested trees were marked and cut into 2 m-segments. The mid-length diameter of each segment was measured outside the bark in two perpendicular directions with a caliper to determine the mean diameter. A 5 cm-thick disc was cut from the middle of each segment. A total of 123 discs were obtained and brought to the laboratory. All the discs were arranged into 2-cm wide diameter classes. The value of each disc class represents the central value (i.e., class 20 included all discs whose diameters ranged from 19.5 to 20.5 cm). Bark was separated from the wood using a peeler knife for each disc. Fresh bark and wood were weighted separately, oven-dried at 80 °C until constant weight, and the oven-dry weight measured. The bark percentage of each disc was considered as bark percentage of a 2 m-segment for fresh and dry weight. Finally, the bark percentage of the whole stem in each DBH class was calculated by adding the 2 m-segments. Bark biomass as an energy source has a high economic value. Bark content variations and production helps recognize the potential of this bioenergy source spatially before harvesting. The percentage of fresh and dry bark in Populus deltoides grown under a monoculture system was examined in the temperate region of northern Iran. Diameter at breast height (DBH) and total height data were analyzed based on an initial inventory. Ten sample trees were felled, separated into 2 m-segments, and weighted in the field. A 5-cm-thick disc from each segment was extracted for determining fresh and dry bark percentages. These were statistically significantly different in disc diameter classes and decreased with increasing disc diameters. Bark percentage of the disc classes ranged from 21.8 to 24.4% in small-sized diameters to 8.1‒9.3% in large-sized diameters. The differences between fresh and dry bark percentages depended on water content variations. Allometric power equations were fitted to data of fresh and dry bark percentages and disc diameters as well as DBH. The values of R2 ranged from 0.89 to 0.90. In addition, allometric power equations provided the best fits for relationships between total stem dry biomass, dry bark biomass, and DBH, R2 = 0.986 and 0.979 for the total stem dry biomass and stem dry bark biomass, respectively. The allometric models can be used to estimate bark percentage and bark production of P. deltoides in segments and for the whole stem for a wide range of segment diameters (8‒44 cm) and DBH (15‒45 cm).

Large-scale reforestation can potentially bring both benefits and risks to the water cycle, which needs to be better quantified under future climates to inform reforestation decisions. We identified 477 water-insecure basins worldwide accounting for 44.6% (380.2 Mha) of the global reforestation potential. As many of these basins are in the Asia-Pacific, we used regional coupled land-climate modelling for the period 2041–2070 to reveal that reforestation increases evapotranspiration and precipitation for most water-insecure regions over the Asia-Pacific. This resulted in a statistically significant increase in water yield (p < 0.05) for the Loess Plateau-North China Plain, Yangtze Plain, Southeast China and Irrawaddy regions. Precipitation feedback was influenced by the degree of initial moisture limitation affecting soil moisture response and thus evapotranspiration, as well as precipitation advection from other reforested regions and moisture transport away from the local region. Reforestation also reduces the probability of extremely dry months in most of the water-insecure regions. However, some regions experience non-significant declines in net water yield due to heightened evapotranspiration outstripping increases in precipitation, or declines in soil moisture and advected precipitation. This dataset contains raw data outputs for Teo et al. (2022), Global Change Biology. Please see the published paper for further details on methods. For enquiries, please contact the corresponding authors: hcteo [at] u.nus.edu or lianpinkoh [at] nus.edu.sg.  Shapefiles can be opened with any GIS program such as ArcMap or QGIS. CSV files can be opened with any spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice.

Hydraulic fracturing drilling technology can cause a high risk of surface spill accidents and thus water contamination. Climate change together with the high water demand and rapid increase in industrial and agricultural activities are valued reasons why we should all care about the availability of water resources and protect them from contamination. Hence, the purpose of this study is to estimate the risk associated with a site contaminated with benzene from oil spillage and its potential impact on groundwater. This study focused on investigating the impact of soil variability and water table depth on groundwater contamination. Temperature-dependent parameters, such as soil water content and the diffusion of pollutants, were considered as key input factors for the HYDRUS 1D numerical model to simulate benzene migration through three types of soil (loamy, sandy clay loam, and silt loam) and evaluate its concentration in the water aquifer. The results indicated that an anticipated increase in earth’s average surface temperature by 4 °C due to climate change could lead to a rise in the level of groundwater pollution in the study area by 0.017 mg/L in loamy soil, 0.00046 mg/L in sandy clay loam soil, and 0.00023 mg/L in silt loam soil. It was found that climate change can reduce the amount of benzene absorbed from 10 to 0.07% in loamy soil, 14 to 0.07% in sandy clay loam soil, and 60 to 53% in silt loam soil. The results showed that the soil properties and solute characteristics that depend on the temperature have a major and important role in determining the level of groundwater pollutants.

Nowadays, a large part of energy is provided by steam turbines; thus, increasing the efficiency and improving the steam turbines performance are of special importance. The presence of the liquid phase in the low-pressure stage of the steam turbine can cause energy loss, efficiency drop, and erosion/corrosion problems; therefore, one of the essential issues is to identify wet steam flow and try to reduce condensation loss. In order to decrease the liquid fraction, the drainage groove technique can be applied. The drainage groove sucks the water droplets from the turbine blade surface and drains them into the condenser. In this study, the effect of the drainage groove location on the surface of steam turbine blades has been investigated on the condensation, droplet radius, inlet mass flow, erosion rate, liquid drainage ratio, condensation losses, and total drainage ratio. For modeling the condensing flow, the Eulerian–Eulerian approach has been applied. The results show that the location of the drainage groove affects the groove performance and flow pattern in the turbine blade. In the selected drainage, the liquid drainage ratio, condensation losses, and erosion rate are reduced by 7.6%, 12%, and 88%, respectively, compared with the no-drainage groove case. Also, the total drainage ratio is 7.2% in the selected drainage. The outcomes of the present work have been a major step forward in the techniques having a great influence on the lifetime, repair and maintenance, and the output power of steam power generation facilities.

Abstract Economically harvesting energy from a microbial fuel cell (MFC), increasing its electrical power production, and developing its role as a practical energy supply, needs a low-cost and high-performance design of the MFC compartments. According to this strategy, a novel monolithic membrane electrode assembly (MEA) was fabricated and evaluated as an air–cathode in a single-chamber MFC (SCMFC). The MEA was made of bacterial cellulose (BC), conductive multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNT), and nano-zycosil (NZ). BC, as a nano-celluloses with oxygen barrier property, can maintain anaerobic conditions for the anode compartment. Binder-less CNT coating on BC avoids costly binders such as poly-tetra fluoro ethylene (PTFE) and Nafion and decreases the MEA charge transfer resistance. NZ, as a very cheap modifier, not only prevents the anolyte leakage but also provides more MEA’s active sites for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). The electrochemical performance of the MEA was compared to a PTFE- based gas diffusion electrode (GDE) in the SCMFC. The MEA cell provided a pulse power density of 1790 mW/m2, roughly twice as high as the pulse power density of GDE (920 mW/m2). SCMFC’s internal resistance decreased from 1.84 KΩ (with GDE) to 0.8 KΩ (with MEA). Also, the cell’s columbic efficiency increased from 4.2% (with GDE) to11.7% (with MEA). Additionally, the capacitance of the MEA (65 mF) was much higher than the value for GDE (0.73 mF). Thus, the MEA compared to the GDE showed higher performance in the SCMFC for electricity generation and wastewater treatment at a lower cost.

AbstractThe integration of power plants and desalination systems has attracted increasing attention over the past few years as an effective solution to tackle sustainable development and climate change issues. In this light, this paper introduces a novel modelling and optimization approach for a combined-cycle power plant (CCPP) integrated with reverse osmosis (RO) and multi-effect distillation (MED) desalination systems. The integrated CCPP and RO–MED desalination system is thermodynamically modelled utilizing MATLAB and EES software environments, and the results are validated via Thermoflex software simulations. Comprehensive energy, exergic, exergoeconomic, and exergoenvironmental (4E) analyses are performed to assess the performance of the integrated system. Furthermore, a new multi-objective water cycle algorithm (MOWCA) is implemented to optimize the main performance parameters of the integrated system. Finally, a real-world case study is performed based on Iran's Shahid Salimi Neka power plant. The results reveal that the system exergy efficiency is increased from 8.4 to 51.1% through the proposed MOWCA approach, and the energy and freshwater costs are reduced by 8.4% and 29.4%, respectively. The latter results correspond to an environmental impact reduction of 14.2% and 33.5%. Hence, the objective functions are improved from all exergic, exergoeconomic, and exergoenvironmental perspectives, proving the approach to be a valuable tool towards implementing more sustainable combined power plants and desalination systems.

LiNi0.9Mn0.1−xAlxO2 (NMA) (x = 0.01, 0.03, 0.05) cathodes were synthesized via the co-precipitation method and continued with the calcination process in a tube furnace at 750 °C under flowing oxygen gas for 12 h. X-ray diffraction (XRD) revealed a well-formed and high-purity phase with a hexagonal structure. LiNi0.9Mn0.07Al0.03O2 (NMA 973) had the best electrochemical performance with the lowest redox peak separation, the smallest charge transfer resistance (71.58 Ω cm−2), the highest initial specific discharge capacity of 172 mAh g−1 at 0.1C, and a capacity retention of 98% after 100 cycles. Under high current density at 1 C, NMA 973 had excellent specific discharge capacity compared to the other samples. The optimal content of Mn and Al elements is a crucial factor to obtain the best electrochemical performance of NMA. Therefore, NMA 973 is a promising candidate as a cathode for high-energy-density lithium-ion batteries.

Due to their unique nature, construction projects are considered one of the world’s most hazardous and incident-prone industrial sectors. The present study aimed to analyze health, safety and environmental (HSE) risks relating to construction projects based on the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK) and sustainability approach. This study was conducted with the participation of 30 experts, using the semi-quantitative risk assessment technique, in nine areas of the project management’s body of knowledge, based on the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process. Risk, in this study, was estimated using a two-dimensional matrix of incident probability and severity, each of which has four sub-parameters. The HSE risks pertaining to each of the nine areas of PMBOK were identified. After that, the two dimensions of risk, including incident probability and severity, were measured. Thirty-seven risk sources associated with nine areas of the PMBOK were identified. Risk analysis revealed that 20 sources were at an unacceptable risk level, and 17 risks were at a tolerable risk level. Identifying HSE-related risk sources in accordance with the nine areas of PMBOK, and using FAHP to assess the risk of these hazards in construction projects, can lead to a more realistic estimate of risk in construction projects. The presented method in the current study can create a novel perspective in terms of the construction industry’s risk management and assessment.

The "Green Manufacturing Research Corpus" is a meticulously curated dataset that comprises a comprehensive collection of documents dedicated to the domain of green manufacturing. This dataset was meticulously assembled through an extensive search, with a primary focus on documents delving into the intersection of green, sustainable, eco-friendly, and low-carbon practices within the manufacturing sector. Our search strategy involved utilizing a combination of keywords such as green, sustainable, environment, eco-friendly, clean, renewable, zero-waste, and low carbon, alongside the term manufacturing, all within the article titles. This precision ensured that the dataset exclusively features precise and pertinent articles directly tied to the subject of green manufacturing, as of March 6, 2023. In total, the initial search yielded an impressive 3,577 documents, encompassing a diverse array of articles exploring the convergence of green manufacturing with environmental and sustainability dimensions. This dataset forms the cornerstone for our systematic review, allowing us to furnish an authentic portrayal of the current state of the field. It also empowers us to identify emerging trends and confront existing challenges within the realm of green manufacturing. Moreover, we meticulously refined the dataset by excluding specific document types, thereby ensuring that our analysis predominantly centered on original research articles. Document categories excluded from the dataset encompassed review articles (148), conference reviews (39), errata (10), retracted articles (3), and reports (1). This scrupulous curation process culminated in a dataset of 3,376 original research articles. These articles served as the bedrock for our assessment of the present state of green manufacturing research, as well as the identification of key trends, challenges, and opportunities within the field. By relying on this rigorously assembled dataset, we assure that our analysis is firmly anchored in primary sources, capturing recent and relevant discoveries within the dynamic and evolving domain of green manufacturing. Note: This dataset consists of raw files sourced from Scopus. This dataset stands as a valuable resource for researchers, scholars, and policymakers with an interest in the dynamic and ever-evolving field of green manufacturing. It provides a comprehensive overview of the current research landscape, rendering it an indispensable tool for those seeking to gain insights into and contribute to the advancement of sustainable manufacturing practices.